Player grades: Tyrese Maxey, Sixers fall to Celtics in Game 3 at home

PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia 76ers returned back to the Xfinity Mobile Arena on Friday with home court advantage in their Round 1 series with the Boston Celtics. The Sixers continue to play without the sidelined Joel Embiid as the big fella is still recovering from an appendectomy back on April 9, but to their credit, they have found a way to be successful on the floor. There were plenty of times in this one when the Celtics threatened to pull away as they built a double-digit lead on separate occasions.

To their credit, the Sixers continued to fight and even rallied to take a lead in the third, but the Celtics would eventually walk away with a gritty and tough 108-100 win and take a 2-1 lead in the series. Jaylen Brown had 25 points and seven rebounds while Jayson Tatum had 25 points and seven assists for Boston. Tyrese Maxey had 31 points and six assists for Philadelphia while Paul George had 18 points and five assists, and Kelly Oubre Jr.

had 17 points and six rebounds. Adem Bona added 10 points, five rebounds, and three blocks, VJ Edgecombe had 10 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists, and Andre Drummond had 12 points and six rebounds. Here are the player grades following the loss: Tyrese Maxey: A When Maxey decided to put his head down and attack downhill, the Celtics didn’t have much of an answer for him.

He is just too quick for the likes of Derrick White and Payton Pritchard, so when he was able to get those opportunities, he took advantage. He finally found a rhythm in the third when he had a bit of a heater with his offensive ability. He knocked down a couple of 3s, got to the basket some and made life miserable for every Celtics defender in that stretch.